4.2 Parks and Recreation

The parks and open spaces of the City provide for a wide range of sporting and recreational uses, which are available to all ages to engage in exercise to suit their individual needs and abilities. This includes tennis, bowling, boules, athletics and field sports of many codes. More recently, outdoor gyms have been installed in many of our parks and their use has increased significantly as the experience of exercising in public has gained greater resonance with the public than it once might have had.

The main form of exercise, however, is walking and people particularly favour walking through and around parks, along rivers, canals and the ribbon of open spaces which follow the coastline. It is noticeable that where pavements have been improved or new ones provided there is an increased use of the park for walking. Pavements facilitate access for the elderly or infirm and parents with small children who would not otherwise be able to use the park. There are in addition many ‘trails’ in the larger parks and the Bull Island which are favoured by more able walkers and which provide a sense of countryside in the City.

Running and jogging are becoming increasingly popular in parks. Thousands of people participate in weekly runs in St. Anne’s Park, Bushy Park, Poppintree Park and others organized by local running groups. Boot camps and fitness classes are also a common sight in parks. These are commercial activities and so are granted a permit to use a particular park.

Facilities in parks are typically allocated by a letting arrangement, licence or permit to community clubs who schedule their games and manage some facilities. This is the case for changing room pavilions (for field sports), tennis, bowling, boxing and the national velodrome in Sundrive Park, Crumlin.

Sillogue Golf Course is administered and marketed by a commercial golf company for public use